10/9/2019

SYRIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TURKEY/WAR: “President Trump on Wednesday [10-9-19] called a Turkish incursion into Syria ‘a bad idea’ but reiterated his opposition to ‘endless, senseless wars,’ striking a far milder tone than outraged members of Congress, foreign allies and officials in his own administration, who said the offensive must be stopped. And later in the day, after issuing that statement, Mr. Trump seemed dismissive of the plight of the Syrian Kurdish fighters who are in Turkey’s cross hairs. Speaking to reporters, the president said that while the  Kurds had fought alongside American troops against the Islamic State, or ISIS, they had done so out of self-interest, ‘for their land,’ and noted that “they didn’t help us in the Second World War. They didn’t help us with Normandy’…In his earlier statement, Mr. Trump said he was holding Turkey responsible for preventing the release of Islamic State fighters who were being held captive in the area and for ensuring ‘that ISIS does not reconstitute in any way, shape or form.’”

Michael Crowley, Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper and Maggie Haberman, “Trump Calls Turkey’s Syrian Offensive a ‘Bad Idea,’ but Opposes ‘Senseless Wars’,” The New York Times online, October 9, 2019